Rudi Martinus van Dijk

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Rudi Martinus van Dijk (27 March 1932, Culemborg - 29 November 2003) was a Dutch composer of classical orchestral, chamber and vocal music, often featuring violin or piano.

As a young man, Rudi studied with Hendrik Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and later emigrated to Canada in 1953 to eventually study under the American composer Roy Harris and with Max Deutsch in Paris.

He wrote music on a regular basis for radio and television for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto appointed van Dijk teacher of composition and piano.

In 1972 van Dijk was appointed teacher of composition and orchestration at Indiana University, and in that same year took a similar post at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Only in 1985 did Van Dijk return to Europe, becoming composer in residence at Dartington Hall in Devon. He then took to residing in both England and the Netherlands alternately, devoting his time to writing music.

Van Dijk collaborated with Victor Braun on music for voice and piano. Van Dijk's The Shadowmaker, four songs for Baritone and Orchestra was commissioned by Braun and performed with The Toronto Symphony.

Rudi van Dijk died 29 November 2003 in East Sussex, England, just two months after the world premiere performance of Kreiten's Passion, composed in honor of pianist Karlrobert Kreiten, in Dusseldorf, Germany.